Dabholkar, a 67-year-old doctor-turned-activist, had been receiving death threats for years since he began traveling by public buses to hundreds of villages around Maharashtra state to lecture against superstitions, religious extremism, black magic and animal or human sacrifice, according to his friend and fellow activist, Deepak Girme.

"He wanted to expose the people who cheat the poor in the name of gods, who promise false cures for cancer or do black magic to perform so-called miracles," Girme said. "He would say he was a medical doctor but that superstition was a bigger disease causing a lot of harm, especially to the poor and the gullible."

This 10000000x. Many "religious" organizations around the world are run as a vehicle for profiteering off ignorance. Sometimes - like with the Taliban - Religion is just the excuse you use to justify the fact that you are a gang of murderous thugs on par with the mafia.

SuperNinjaToad:Dabholkar, a 67-year-old doctor-turned-activist, had been receiving death threats for years since he began traveling by public buses to hundreds of villages around Maharashtra state to lecture against superstitions, religious extremism, black magic and animal or human sacrifice, according to his friend and fellow activist, Deepak Girme.

I don't know about the other stuff but black magic is real!

Your ex wasn't hexed, she was just crazy, and you were an idiot to start dating her

I think the scientific community is going about it all wrong. How hard could it be to convince the magical thinkers that the other magical thinkers are evil and need to be killed? Maybe there is even a way to convince them to kill themselves. Let's purge these genes from the gene pool forever.

SuperNinjaToad:Dabholkar, a 67-year-old doctor-turned-activist, had been receiving death threats for years since he began traveling by public buses to hundreds of villages around Maharashtra state to lecture against superstitions, religious extremism, black magic and animal or human sacrifice, according to his friend and fellow activist, Deepak Girme.

Chummer45:"He wanted to expose the people who cheat the poor in the name of gods, who promise false cures for cancer or do black magic to perform so-called miracles," Girme said. "He would say he was a medical doctor but that superstition was a bigger disease causing a lot of harm, especially to the poor and the gullible."

This 10000000x. Many "religious" organizations around the world are run as a vehicle for profiteering off ignorance. Sometimes - like with the Taliban - Religion is just the excuse you use to justify the fact that you are a gang of murderous thugs on par with the mafia.

Chummer45:"He wanted to expose the people who cheat the poor in the name of gods, who promise false cures for cancer or do black magic to perform so-called miracles," Girme said. "He would say he was a medical doctor but that superstition was a bigger disease causing a lot of harm, especially to the poor and the gullible."

This 10000000x. Many "religious" organizations around the world are run as a vehicle for profiteering off ignorance. Sometimes - like with the Taliban - Religion is just the excuse you use to justify the fact that you are a gang of murderous thugs on par with the mafia.

Wait... I thought EVERYONE is the same ALL OVER THE WORLD...

The market will take care of it... since EVERYONE is rational like white middle class male Farkers (95% of the Fark community). There is no need for this anti-superstition bill. They will mock the false-prophets out of favor, the same way the Fark community shouts down a troll.

No need to look into differences of CULTURE or RELIGION here on FARK... we're ALL THE SAME... because on Fark, we are (mostly white male middle class emotionally detached critics).

Hurrah for circle-jerk opinions. We all agree with each other. Yay! Freedom of speech achieved.

I May Be Crazy But...:There's a few folks saying that this is the same as what happens in America in when we argue about the place of religion in our society or about matters which touch on religion, mostly Christianity.

No. No, it's not.

Yes. Yes it is.There are millions of Americans who believe in faith healing, snake oils, and all sorts of other superstitious nonsense that would be tl;dr for me to write out.

Begoggle:I May Be Crazy But...: There's a few folks saying that this is the same as what happens in America in when we argue about the place of religion in our society or about matters which touch on religion, mostly Christianity.

No. No, it's not.

Yes. Yes it is.There are millions of Americans who believe in faith healing, snake oils, and all sorts of other superstitious nonsense that would be tl;dr for me to write out.

I didn't say there aren't ignorant people and those who fleece them. I said people aren't killing for it.

I live down the street from the biggest church in world. They preach their prosperity gospel in the name of a man who said that no rich man will make it into heaven. But THEY DON'T KILL the folks who call them greedy heretics. In fact, mostly they ignore them in favor of holding services in a basketball arena.

Begoggle:Kit Fister: I dunno, but I would consider having one less self-righteous douchebag in the world a positive...

He wasn't self-righteous, or a douchebag.You, however...

Maybe so. However, it really is no business of anyone else what I believe, and shoving their beliefs into the faces of others, regardless of their beliefs, is pretty self-righteous. It's similar to how anyone who expresses a belief other than the "accepted Fark norm" gets practically bullied around here whether passively or actively because of their "stupidity".

I May Be Crazy But...:I live down the street from the biggest church in world. They preach their prosperity gospel in the name of a man who said that no rich man will make it into heaven. But THEY DON'T KILL the folks who call them greedy heretics. In fact, mostly they ignore them in favor of holding services in a basketball arena.

You're right, they don't take it to the extreme of killing folks very often over here (we have fairly well enforced laws that prohibit it).

Kit Fister:Begoggle: Kit Fister: I dunno, but I would consider having one less self-righteous douchebag in the world a positive...

He wasn't self-righteous, or a douchebag.You, however...

Maybe so. However, it really is no business of anyone else what I believe, and shoving their beliefs into the faces of others, regardless of their beliefs, is pretty self-righteous. It's similar to how anyone who expresses a belief other than the "accepted Fark norm" gets practically bullied around here whether passively or actively because of their "stupidity".

Maybe you picked up a different sense of the man than I did, but I don't think he was breaking down people's doors or following them in the markets preaching about the evils of black magic. Sounds like he made regular trips out into the small towns / villages in the countryside, holding meetings (like a motivational speaker might) to talk about problems associated with religious extremism, black magic, snake oil salesmen, etc. In other words, nobody was forced to hear him speak, and he didn't cry out that his was was the one true way, and woe to those who failed to heed him. You seem to intentionally stretch the recollection of his deeds when you compare it to "shoving (his) beliefs into the faces of others".

So maybe tone down the rhetoric a little bit and deal with the facts of the situation and you won't get perceived as "stupid" or have to deal with being "buillied".

KnowledgeJunkie:So maybe tone down the rhetoric a little bit and deal with the facts of the situation and you won't get perceived as "stupid" or have to deal with being "buillied".

If he only talked to those who willingly sought him out, I retract my statement. If he went out and actively attempted to preach, then I stand behind them. I got the sense that his activism was more in the vein of the latter than the former.